Where Satan Will Attack You Today - And How to Strike Back
Do you know where the enemy is most likely to attack you today?
It's not by messing up your finances.
It's not by blocking that promising career opportunity you've been praying for.
It's not by closing the door on the new ministry position your church offered you.
Satan can, and indeed may, try his hand on any or all of the above. But they are not the areas where he's the most likely to come at you.
In fact, he wouldn't even want to rob you of a financial increase or a rewarding career or an exciting ministry opportunity if he thought there was a chance the blessing might come between you and God!
If the devil thought that the blessing might steal your focus away from Jesus and cause you to become self-reliant or too busy to sit quietly at your Master's feet, he would be all for it!
But there's ONE thing the devil DOESN’T want you to have: biblically true, Christ-centered, Spirit-empowered, God-glorifying thoughts!
Satan would like your thoughts to be depressed, anxious, fearful, self-defeating, bitter, prideful, world-focused, self-serving, and/or self-exalting.
The devil's primary target, as far as your personal life goes, is not your physical circumstances but your spiritual well-being.
All other areas of your life are merely side issues to him.
Satan's strategy is to pound away on your mind (or he may do it in more of a chipping, not-so-obvious way), all in an effort to distract you, discourage you, deceive you, and ultimately defeat you in your Christian walk. His goal is to lure you as far away as he can from the Truth about God, the Truth about himself, and the Truth about your new identity in Jesus.
He knows that when your thinking isn't right, your views and opinions and beliefs won't be right either, which in turn will negatively affect many different aspects of your life. He understands the Truth of Proverbs 23:7: "As a person thinks within himself, so he is."
The devil also knows that humans are more likely to fall for subtle deceptions than bald-faced ones. This is why he and his demons will often sow tiny seeds of doubt in our minds that sprout over time. They'll lie to us over and over until the lies sound so familiar and seem so rational we start accepting them as Truth:
"You're not addicted; you can stop anytime you want."
"If you apologize, you'll look weak."
"Things will never get better."
"No one will find out."
"They're just thoughts. You're not hurting anyone."
"God must be punishing you for your mistake."
How, then, do we withstand the devil's falsehoods? How do we avoid being deceived?
We do it by knowing the Truth extremely well and consistently applying it to our thinking.
When Satan tries to wield one of his lies (for example, "No one loves you") to trigger a specific emotional response in us (for example, despair), we need to make an effort to mentally block the lie the instant it pops into our head.
First, we recognize that the thought is of the enemy and refuse to dwell on it. We take the untrue thought captive (2 Corinthians 10:5).
Next, we counter the thought with one or more thoughts that are diametrically opposed to it as well as biblically true ("I'm infinitely loved by God. I'm so valuable that Jesus willingly gave His life for me").
Sound biblical thinking is precisely what Jesus used when Satan tempted Him in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-11, Mark 1:12-13, Luke 4:1-13). The devil tried to twist Scripture to support his own lies, but the Son of God put him in his place by quoting the Word back to him appropriately and in context until Satan left Him alone.
Here is the secret to Jesus' spiritual victory:
The Gospels say nothing about our Lord lingering on Satan's temptations or entertaining reasons He might want to take the devil up on his various offers. This strongly indicates that Jesus did the opposite, quickly renouncing Satan.
Jesus was ready. He didn't have to go look for a scroll at the local papyrus shop and spend hours searching the Scriptures to decide which passages would be the most effective in disarming the enemy. He managed to make a swift mental escape from the devil's bait because He had hidden God’s Word in His heart (see Psalm 119:11)!
The Gospel accounts tell us Jesus fasted for forty days before His showdown with Satan. I think it's safe to assume He combined fasting with prayer and Scripture meditation. Jesus may have been physically weak as He went head-to-head with Satan due to His lack of food intake, but spiritually, He was stronger than ever.
Long before the devil appeared on the scene, Jesus had no doubt made up His mind that He wouldn’t be swayed. And because Jesus knew the Truth so well, He could skillfully draw the sword of the Spirit at just the right moment and strike the enemy back (Ephesians 6:17).
The way Jesus had become so familiar with the Truth was by making the study and application of Scripture part of His lifestyle. God's Word was a critical component of His life, not just something He would read on the Sabbath and then stow away for the rest of the week. He even brought this point up to Satan during His testing in the wilderness! "'Man shall not live on bread alone,'" Jesus said, quoting the Old Testament, "but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God'" (Matthew 4:4).
Like the Lord, you and I may not always be able to physically remove ourselves from the presence of temptation, but we can still cut it off mentally. Like Him, we can prepare ourselves for spiritual conflict by being built up on the Word. And like Him, we must embrace Truth-based living if we want to experience spiritual victories consistently.
In closing, consider this: If Satan is most likely to attack us in the area between our ears, and if the quality of our life, more than anything, is affected by the thoughts we think, then the battle for our minds is one of the most important fights we can engage in.
Isn't it time we took it seriously?
L.B.
Anything else you know of that can help us think biblically and conquer lying thoughts? Got questions? Please share in the comments right below!
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